5 Rabbit to open brewery in southwest suburbs

Josh NoelTribune Newspapers

5 Rabbit Brewing, which has had its Latin-influenced beers made at six different breweries since launching last spring, will open a brewery of its own in the southwest suburb of Bedford Park later this year, co-owner Isaac Showaki said today.

The 25,000 square-foot facility, about one mile southwest of Midway Airport, will extricate 5 Rabbit from the business of contract brewing, which has led to its beer being made in three different states during the last year.

Showaki said the new facility should be running by August, with a taproom to follow in late 2012 or early 2013. He and co-owners Andres Araya and Randy Mosher are in the process of looking for a brewmaster.

"We couldn't control how much we wanted to brew at what time," Showaki said of the contract brewing process. "Now we will control everything. And we know we can make our beer better than anyone else."

Showaki said he and his partners looked at close to 100 properties during the last year and nearly inked deals with several. But they were drawn to their future home at 6398 W. 74th St. because Bedford Park officials were eager to work with them. Also, the brewery will be a little more than a mile from the Toyota Park soccer stadium, in Bridgeview, whose patrons could be a natural audience.

"As soon as we are open, we want to get our beer to the Fire games," he said. "We definitely want to a have a bus come in before games and then go to the stadium."

5 Rabbit will continue to make its three staple beers — 5 Rabbit golden ale, 5 Lizard passion fruit wit ale and 5 Vulture dark ale — as well as its quarterly seasonals at the new plant. The brewery will also release a new beer called 5 Grass Hoppy Ale, which it describes as a well-hopped beer employing three hop varieties and juniper, sage and Tasmanian pepperberry among others spices. If well-received, it could become the fourth year-round 5 Rabbit beer.

"We'll take it slow," Showaki said. "The main thing is to get production facility up and running and when we have the money, open the taproom."

They will install a 30-barrel brewing system with 60-barrel fermenters that they plan to upgrade to 120-barrel fermenters in the next year. The brewery's maximum output, which wouldn't be realized for several years, would be about 35,000 barrels per year (for comparison sake, that's more than double what Half Acre will be able to produce after its expansion).

5 Rabbit had always planned to open a brewery of its own, but originally envisioned the move in another few years. Demand has been robust enough that the time for action was now, Showaki said.

"Thank God everything went really well," he said. "It was the right time."

In case you have missed it, we have been blessed with similar news in recent weeks from Half Acre, Three Floyds and a little brewery in California called Lagunitas.